LSD: Love Scandal and Doctors keeps you engrossed right through, applauds Joginder Tuteja.
When I first came across the title of the Web series LSD: Love Scandal and Doctors, it sounded like yet another pulp fiction offering on the OTT medium.
Nothing wrong with that, after all, dramas and thrillers -- especially those centred on crime -- have been a staple diet on the small screen in the last one year.
But one episode into this 15 part series on ALT Balaji and ZEE5, I realised it had a lot more to offer than just the regular thrills.
For starters, it's the setting that makes all the difference here.
Considering the fact that LSD has a hospital as the backdrop, there is a new ambience you experience as an audience.
And you never feel suffocated with the inherent nature of a hospital setting.
This one is designed as an entertainer, which means there is a lot that happens within the confines of the walls of this hospital.
A murder takes place right at the beginning, setting the stage for this series with Sattwik Mohanty, Preya Hirji, Danish Mansurie and Saaqib Pandor coming together as directors.
Five interns have to dispose the body after committing the crime.
Each one carries guilt.
Ishaan Khanna is the son of the hospital dean (Rahul Dev as the cold-blooded professional for whom the hospital's reputation means everything) and has to fight off the nepotism tag despite being the brightest of the lot.
Siddharh Menon wants to rise above being a sidekick while following the bro-code.
Tanaya Sachdeva is the Mumbai girl, who knows that to survive in the big city of Delhi, she has to do everything by hook or crook.
Srishti Rindani needs to battle an abusive relationship and Ayush Shrivastav has to fight his core identity.
There are other characters as well, and each one is well fleshed out -- be it the senior doctor Neha Hinge who has to balance her professional and personal emotions, or her best friend Ashmita Jaggi, who is a resident psychologist with a dark past or the cop Punit Pathak who brings on a rare element of empathy even in the toughest of investigations.
The character LSD revolves around is Pulkit Makol is simply fabulous and brings out his negative side so well, that you will just love to hate him.
From being a clean shaven vulnerable youngster in Your Honour, where he played Jimmy Sheirgill's son, to a bearded psychologist playing mind games, Pulkit has announced his arrival and how.
LSD is not just about who committed the murder and why, but it goes far beyond that.
Here, everyone appears to be having a motive to kill, but they also believe that s/he is actually responsible for the death of the victim. This is what makes it different.
What further elevates LSD is the background score and the fast-paced editing.
The writing and dialogues are also good, and there are no unnecessary scenes.
Though at a couple of places, the dubbing could have been better, also the sound recording (especially around Tanaya's dialogues), one doesn't mind that.
When the core story works, everything else is secondary, and this holds true in the case of LSD.
It keeps you engrossed right through, with the needle of suspicion move to every character in the story.
Binge watch it and you won't regret it.
